Masteries

Offense:
9

Defense:
21

Utility:
0

Introduction

Introduction
Welcome to my Xin Guide. The purpose of the guide was to show and help people who are new, but also experienced in the game on how to correctly play and build a champ like Xin Zhao. The guide encompasses basic things such as runes, masteries, what items to be getting, as well as more complicated and difficult things to do as Xin such as what to do in team-fights, how to farm efficiently, and how to jungle. Enjoy.

Pros

Seems to be one of the most balanced champions in the game.
Has an interrupt which cannot be cleansed.
AoE slow
Attack speed steroid which lowers CD on all other skills.
An AoE ultimate which can deal heavy damage and grants bonus stats.
Can be built both tanky or DPS and can initiate fights or perform each role rather well.
Ganking with Xin is pretty easy due to his slow and knock-up as well as frontload damage.
Extremely low mana costs.
Very easy to farm with, even against ranged.
Can harass decently well.
Only requires 1-2 items to do great with.
Skill-cap is not TOO high to do exceptionally well with.

Cons

Jungling is not at all that great. Slow, usually low HP and can be easily counter-jungled.
May not be the greatest thing early on but with a few farms and levels can devastate a team.
Somewhat squishy unless he has the bonus granted from his ultimate.
You will require your team to atleast help you out in a bit for you to clean-up, initiate effectively.
Focus can kill him relatively easy if built straight DPS, which you should never do.

Runes

Why Armor pen marks?

-Armor pen marks are some of the best marks you can obtain for your champion, considering he's AD. Seeing as most of Xin's damage comes from his auto-attacks, and his ULT (which does physical damage) these are the best runes I see fit for him.

Why dodge runes and not armor?

-I feel that dodge seals are the best seals for Xin because of the decent synergy they have with your 9/21. With tier 3 seals I can average about 10% or so dodge at the start of a game and I find dodge to be a lot better late game than armor. Dodge can help you evade that 300 crit arrow from ashe that might've slowed you and killed you and ended up with you getting away.

Why mr glyphs?

-Really simply because MR is usually something that you'll need a decent amount of on Xin, I rock these because I find them to be the best type of glyphs for him.
Another glyph that is really close behind are CDR glyphs. These also pose great synergy with Xin because of the fact that it decreases the CD on his W. For Xin, the less of a downtime his W is on, the higher his overall DPS and team utility with E and Q will be.

Why MS quints?

-Personally they're the best quints because they help ganks/running away/sticking to a target, and nothing else really compares to them. With the nerfs to HP quints they barely give anything except fora small early game advantage. The MS quints stay extremely useful through-out the entire game.

Masteries

Basic 9/21 masteries. Xin zhao can also make use of 0/21/9 as well as 21/0/9. I don't really recommend 21/0/9 because I find that building tankier on him is the key to success. You don't want to be a glass cannon and die instantly. That means you're a liability rather than an asset to your team and all you'll be doing is feeding.

Items

The number #1 item on Xin Zhao is a Youmuu's GhostBlade. This is literally the ultimate item on him because it gives him everything an AD carry such as himself needs, while also synergizing great with his W.
The[reason for this is because it gives damage, armor pen, crit chance, and an EXTREMELY underrated, and underused active that can change the tide of a battle/gank. It grants him extra attack speed, giving him more damage and goes good with his W, as well as helping him stick to a target with the MS bonus.
What you want to start with is something like.
-Cloth armor and 5 hp pots.
-Farm in your lane until you have enough for about boots and maybe a long sword.
-Don't forget pots and wards, especially wards.
-By the time the laning phase is over, you should already have your Merc Treads and Brutalizer.
From here on out, finish your youmuus and grab survivability. Bveil is a great item and you'll be needing it most of the time. If you REALLY and TRULY do NOT need survivability, which you always will, grab a SoTD, because it's another great item on Xin.
Remember that NO guide can tell you what items to be getting. The only core items you should be building are Merc Treads or Ninja Tabis, and a ghostblade along with your cloth armor and 5 hp pots at the start of a game. I cannot tell you what to build after this if I do not know the enemy team's comp, nor your team comp.

Situational items.

Situational items.

This chapter explains what you should be getting for enemy/ally team comps and what items are the most efficient to build on Xin.As we know Youmuus and Merc's and are core items on Xin Zhao. What we don't know is what's after.Most teams will have atleast 2-3 forms of CC and will encompass strong AP nukers, making Merc's the best buy for Xin 95% of the time.Sometimes, you may even get those teams that will be mostly Auto-attack Based champs. For these situations you take Ninja Tabis.You will almost NEVER want to build them because in almost ALL cases, building defense in this game is more important than building that extra bit of damage.Along with your choice of boots the next item that will immediately come after is a banshee's veil against a AP heavy team. It's not only good against casters but it also blocks 1 negative spell every that may kill you or put you inn an extremely bad position. Some skills that BV saves you a lot against are and many many more.

Skill Sequence

At the start, you should get a point in TTS. It increases your damage very slightly, grants one of the best CCs in the game, and resets the swing timer. You can easily do 200 damage with this, especially if you combine it with a normal auto-attack at the start of it, resetting the swing-timer.

After this you want 1 point in E just for the harassment and farming, and then stick to your Crescent Sweep(R) and Battle Cry(W)

Summoner Spells

For summoners I go something like Flash and Ignite. I receive a BUNCH of **** for choosing these two, but I find that they work the best for myself. Ignite helps with vlads/mundos/swains, and also gives me that kill that might've gotten away/or might've just killed me.
As for flash, I can use it offensively to get the last hit so I can knock someone up, or just ensue rape on them after I dash to them. It can also be used defensively by flashing over a wall to escape a gank/fight.

Many people also choose ghost/exhaust. Summoners are entirely up to you as the player.

Summary

This is it for the basics on the Xin Build. You can read the rest of the guide that goes more in-depth and explains higher levels of play for this champ and others, or shoot me a message if you want to ask something personally. Read the entire guide and comment/rate if you have any questions.

League of Legends is a team based, real time strategy game set in a mythical world of swords & magic where epic battles decide the fate of mystical nations. Game players take on the role of a Summoner who conjures and controls champions to fight for them at the Institute of War. During game play champions gain experience and items to enhance their skills and abilities. How players develop and play their champions can be the difference between a crushing defeat or a glorious victory!